God Who Lets Himself Be Deceived

1When all the kings who were beyond the Jordan, in the hill country, and in the lowland, and on all the shore of the great sea in front of Lebanon, the Hittite, the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite, heard of it 2they gathered themselves together to fight with Joshua and with Israel, with one accord. 3But when the inhabitants of Gibeon heard what Joshua had done to Jericho and to Ai, 4they also resorted to a ruse, and went and made as if they had been ambassadors, and took old sacks on their donkeys, and old, torn-up and bound up wine skins, 5and old and patched shoes on their feet, and wore old garments. All the bread of their food supply was dry and moldy. 6They went to Joshua at the camp at Gilgal, and said to him and to the men of Israel, “We have come from a far country. Now therefore make a covenant with us.” 7The men of Israel said to the Hivites, “What if you live among us? How could we make a covenant with you?” 8They said to Joshua, “We are your servants.” Joshua said to them, “Who are you? Where do you come from?” 9They said to him, “Your servants have come from a very far country because of the name of Yahweh your God; for we have heard of his fame, all that he did in Egypt, 10and all that he did to the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan, to Sihon king of Heshbon and to Og king of Bashan, who was at Ashtaroth. 11Our elders and all the inhabitants of our country spoke to us, saying, ‘Take supplies in your hand for the journey, and go to meet them. Tell them, “We are your servants. Now make a covenant with us.”’ 12This our bread we took hot for our supplies out of our houses on the day we went out to go to you; but now, behold, it is dry, and has become moldy. 13These wine skins, which we filled, were new; and behold, they are torn. These our garments and our shoes have become old because of the very long journey.” 14The men sampled their provisions, and didn’t ask counsel from Yahweh’s mouth. 15Joshua made peace with them, and made a covenant with them, to let them live. The princes of the congregation swore to them. 16At the end of three days after they had made a covenant with them, they heard that they were their neighbors, and that they lived among them. 17The children of Israel traveled and came to their cities on the third day. Now their cities were Gibeon, Chephirah, Beeroth, and Kiriath Jearim. 18The children of Israel didn’t strike them, because the princes of the congregation had sworn to them by Yahweh, the God of Israel. All the congregation murmured against the princes. 19But all the princes said to all the congregation, “We have sworn to them by Yahweh, the God of Israel. Now therefore we may not touch them. 20We will do this to them, and let them live; lest wrath be on us, because of the oath which we swore to them.” 21The princes said to them, “Let them live, so they became wood cutters and drawers of water for all the congregation, as the princes had spoken to them.” 22Joshua called for them, and he spoke to them, saying, “Why have you deceived us, saying, ‘We are very far from you,’ when you live among us? 23Now therefore you are cursed, and some of you will never fail to be slaves, both wood cutters and drawers of water for the house of my God.” 24They answered Joshua, and said, “Because your servants were certainly told how Yahweh your God commanded his servant Moses to give you all the land, and to destroy all the inhabitants of the land from before you. Therefore we were very afraid for our lives because of you, and have done this thing. 25Now, behold, we are in your hand. Do to us as it seems good and right to you to do.” 26He did so to them, and delivered them out of the hand of the children of Israel, so that they didn’t kill them. 27That day Joshua made them wood cutters and drawers of water for the congregation and for Yahweh’s altar to this day, in the place which he should choose.

When children need money, the most common lie they tell is probably that they need to buy a study guide. Later, when they are grown, they realize their parents knew all along. Parents often let themselves be fooled even when they know. Having done the same thing themselves as children, they go along with it and look the other way, so long as it is no serious wrong.

God, too, knows whether we are praying from the heart or only to get what we want right now. But the child who comes to the Father is dear to him, and so, knowing full well, he lets himself be deceived. When we are hurting and struggling and, instead of running to the world, come to God and call him Father, the sound of that child’s voice is a great joy to him. Even if it is a way of using God’s love for our own needs, God is the kind of Father who is happy simply that his children depend on him.

When a parent has let one deception pass, a child ought to feel sorry and never do it again, but a foolish child keeps it up, meaning truly to deceive, and the parent who knowingly went along will one day scold them severely. God forgives the mistakes we make without knowing better. If we keep repeating a wrong out of foolishness we will be rebuked, of course, but a wrong done on purpose is not forgiven, so we must be careful.

Some people know full well with what heart God and their parents forgive them and let themselves be deceived, and still they will not bend. ‘That’s just the way I am,’ they say, or ‘My mind won’t change,’ or ‘This is how I’ve always lived.’ In the end they will be sharply rebuked. Only those who yield to God, who works above human ability, judgment, and wisdom, can be used as his instruments on this earth.

On the day God rescued David from the hand of Saul, who had been hunting him, David lifted up a song. In it he declared that they had come upon him in the day of his calamity, but Yahweh had been his support; that Yahweh had brought him out into a large place and delivered him because he delighted in him; that Yahweh had rewarded him according to his righteousness and repaid him according to the cleanness of his hands, because he had kept the ways of Yahweh and had not wickedly departed from his God, because all God’s ordinances were before him and he had not put away his statutes. When David kept himself from sinning against God, God rescued him from the hand of his enemies. God helps to the end those who, like David, live honestly and purely so as to live by his will.

God gave his one and only Son to the world to forgive sinners. If sinners who have received such overflowing love still refuse to repent and turn back, he is a fearsome God who, as he cast off Judas Iscariot and Achan, firmly withholds a second chance. So believing in God matters, but living out our lives as his people matters far more. If we live holy lives as his children while God forgives us and holds us close, his protection will continue.

Joshua and the Israelites had offered burnt offerings and peace offerings on Mount Ebal and returned to Gilgal. The news that Israel had conquered Jericho and Ai must have come as a tremendous shock to the people of Canaan. So the Hittites, along with the Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, all gathered and were preparing for war with Israel. Lacking spiritual discernment, they heard the great name of God and could think only that they had to gather more men than Israel in order to win. But to oppose Israel by human strength is like hurling an egg against a rock.

Joshua 9:3

3But when the inhabitants of Gibeon heard what Joshua had done to Jericho and to Ai,

While the other nations prepared for war, the people of Gibeon heard of Yahweh’s great name and understood how great God is. So rather than fight, they devised a ruse to come to terms with Israel. Since this was the only way to save their lives, they had to find some means, whatever it took, of making peace with Israel. The Gibeonites were the second in Canaan to turn back after hearing God’s name.

The first was Rahab, who was saved because she helped the spies. The Gibeonites had probably heard how Rahab had helped Israel and been saved. They had heard that, in return for sparing the spies, she had become one of God’s people and was living in safety, and that news made them all the more determined to do everything they could to make peace.

When they hear God’s name, some, like the nations of Canaan, prepare for war to oppose Israel, while others, like the Gibeonites, make up a well-meant lie in order to make peace. Whatever choice people make when they hear God’s name, the choice is their own.

The gospel is proclaimed to the world without partiality. Jesus Christ came to this earth to atone for the sins of humankind, and the news that only those who believe in Jesus can enter heaven has gone out to the ends of the earth. Now those who have heard that good news must choose one way or the other. Those who trust in this world will oppose God, and those who believe that this world is not the end, that there is an eternal world, will receive Jesus Christ.

The envoys from Gibeon loaded old sacks and wine skins on their donkeys, put patched shoes on their feet, wore old garments, and brought bread that was dry and moldy as they came to the camp where Joshua was. They had made themselves look shabby, as though they had traveled from very far away to meet Israel. In fact, the Gibeonites were Hivites who lived very close by, within three days’ walk.

Joshua asked them where they had come from. They deceived him, saying that his servants had come from a very far country because of the name of Yahweh his God. They falsely claimed that the elders and inhabitants of their land, deeply afraid of God, had sent them, and that their bread, still hot when they set out, had dried up and grown moldy on the long road. Their words reveal how hard the Gibeonites were striving to make a covenant with Israel.

To pass from a life of sinning as one pleases in the world into the company of God’s people, a person must plead with their life at stake, as these men did. Yet believers, though they have received the miraculous blessing of becoming God’s people, live no differently from the people of the world. It is no easy thing for a Canaanite who had lived as a sinner to be forgiven by God and become one of his people, since salvation is received only by those who come, as the Gibeonites did, with the humble resolve that says, ‘If I perish, I perish.’ The Gibeonites had to come begging to Israel for the life they received. We, by contrast, take the death of Jesus for granted, even though God the Son laid aside his throne, came to this earth himself, and atoned for our sins. Going to meet Joshua would have taken real resolve for the Gibeonites. Had their lie been found out, they could have been killed. Let us imagine how uneasy they must have been as they told it.

We in the church today have such easy access to the word that, though we have received that precious salvation, we behave proudly, as though we were doing God a favor by believing in him. But the story of the rich man and Lazarus in Luke 16 shows that being saved is no easy thing. The Bible focuses less on the people of the world than on what kind of faith believers must live by in order to be saved. Because the world has already been judged, it is among those who attend church that the wheat is separated from the weeds.

Jesus told a story in which the rich man and the beggar Lazarus were both people who believed in God. The rich man dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day. The purple he wore was the clothing of kings, a garment that stood for power. Having no fear of God, instead of using the wealth entrusted to him as a good steward, to fulfill the calling God had given him, he lived for himself alone. The beggar Lazarus lay at the rich man’s gate, begging, hoping for at least the crumbs of the blessing God had given the rich man, but even that did not come easily. In the end Lazarus died without getting so much as a meal from him. The rich man flaunted his faith in purple and fine linen, but when he died he fell into hell. And Lazarus, who had to beg because he owned nothing in this world but who held fast to his faith through hardship, passed away and entered heaven with the angels.

By setting these two men side by side, Jesus showed what heaven is like. The rich man went to hell and the beggar to heaven, and from this we learn that the Kingdom of God and the world judge by different standards. The world exalts those who have much, but God exalts those who exalt Jesus Christ. So Lazarus, who had no earthly possessions but served God, entered heaven, while the rich man, who had much but exalted himself, died and suffered torment in Hades.

The rich man in hell, parched with thirst, lifted up his eyes and saw Lazarus in Abraham’s bosom. He begged that Lazarus be sent to give him even a drop of water, but Abraham refused, saying that no one can pass between heaven and hell.

When God placed Lazarus at the rich man’s gate, he was giving the rich man a chance to share what he had received from God, meaning to reward him through service and caring for the poor. To refuse to share while a brother in the faith starves at one’s own gate shows that one’s hope is not set on heaven, which makes it a wicked sin.

Terrified of this hell where he could not drink even a drop of water, the rich man made a request of Abraham: he had five brothers who had not received the gospel, so would Abraham send Lazarus to preach it to them? But Abraham refused outright. He refused because he knew that there are many evangelists preaching the gospel, and that those who will not listen to them will not listen even if someone goes to them from the dead.

Now there is no chance left for the rich man who has departed this world. Regretting the days he had not lived by faith, he wanted the gospel preached at least to his brothers so that they would not come to hell, but every chance had passed. That is why Jesus told us not to wait until we are in hell to regret it, but to treasure the gospel we have received now, while there is opportunity. To hear the gospel and believe it is the chance of salvation God gives.

Joshua 9:14

14The men sampled their provisions, and didn’t ask counsel from Yahweh’s mouth.

The Gibeonites realized that becoming God’s people was their only way to live, and they are doing everything they can to seize this chance of salvation.

The Gibeonites’ earnest plea reached God, and the way he answered is intriguing. His answer came like this: Joshua, who always prayed and sought God’s will, made peace with them without praying at all. Had Joshua prayed it through, the Gibeonites’ lie would have been exposed, and they would have been wiped out. But God does not cast away those who long to become his people.

Joshua was taken in by how the Gibeonites looked, but God had seen it all from the beginning: how, to save their lives, they had made their hot bread go moldy and gathered worn-out sacks and wine skins. Because he saw their sincere hearts, he pretended to be deceived. God casts off the wicked, like Achan, who saw miracles and still betrayed him, but he protects the lives of those who, like these men, earnestly long to become his people. For the sake of those who sought to become his people, he helped them—even to the point of causing Joshua to be deceived.

Israel learned that the Gibeonites lived only three days away, and only then did they realize they had been deceived, but having already sworn an oath, they could not kill them. They had sworn in the name of God to spare them and could not go back on it, so they made the Gibeonites wood cutters and drawers of water for the tabernacle. From then on the Gibeonites would live as servants at the tabernacle, but they had gained eternal life.

We are no more worthy of salvation than the Gibeonites were. So it is that although we are forever making false confessions that we will live by faith and live as his children, God forgives us and blesses us, knowing he is being deceived. It is not that God fails to see through the lie. He pretends to be deceived because, even so, we want to live as his people. Seeing that desire to belong to him, he saves our lives, just as he made it possible for the Gibeonites to work, eat, and drink at the tabernacle. The Canaanites, who heard the reports and still prepared to attack Israel, and the Gibeonites, who heard God’s great name and came of their own accord to submit to it, would receive blessings as far apart as heaven and hell.

The Bible describes the people of the world who are outside of God as already condemned, as dead, as slaves of Satan, as those caught in eternal death. Once we know that this is how God sees those outside of Christ, it is easy to see how great a sin it is for the nations of Canaan to oppose his great name. It is great because in that sin the creature rises against the Creator, and the sinner refuses to submit to the word of the Judge.

Satan is a creature. As that creature coveted the place of God the Creator and fell into eternal death, so the nations of Canaan, joining forces to oppose God, bring on themselves the curse of entering, with Satan, the hell that burns forever.

We must never commit the folly of opposing God. For even if the world refuses to believe in him, God is the Creator and the Judge, and that will never change. Since everything comes to pass according to his will, our thoughts and judgments and righteousness have no effect on God at all.

It is quite astonishing that Joshua, who always laid down his own thinking before God and acted with care, made peace with the Gibeonites without praying when they lied to him. What makes it astonishing is that only just before, in the battle against Ai, he had decided without prayer and suffered a heavy defeat.

This event shows that, for the sake of salvation, God will close the eyes and ears even of someone who prays as Joshua did. Joshua’s uprightness might otherwise have led him into the sin of keeping the Gibeonites from becoming God’s people, so God covered his eyes and ears. As time went on, Joshua and the Israelites would have come to understand why God had worked this way.

In the same way, if you always pray and strive to live according to God’s will, he will guard you even from the sins you might commit without realizing it. It matters greatly to stay awake at all times and judge everything by what is good. But we are human beings in the flesh and can still make mistakes, so it is wiser still to entrust ourselves to God and lean on him.

At first Joshua and the Israelites may well have been angry at having been deceived. But as they watched the Gibeonites serving God at the tabernacle with all their might, they would have thanked God for his grace in preserving the Gibeonites’ lives as well as their own, the people he had chosen.

From now on the Gibeonites would live humbly, as if eating the crumbs that fell from Israel’s table. And Israel would give the Gibeonites, who served so faithfully, not crumbs but a share of the blessing they had received from God, and the two would live side by side.

Something of the Gibeonites’ heart is found in those who believe in Christ as well. When we kneel before God, looking as pitiful as we can in order to get an answer, he lets himself be deceived even though he knows our hearts. He knows your heart stays close to the world, yet he is moved with pity that you came to him calling him Father, so he lets himself be fooled and answers you. May you not pray to God only in times of trouble, but delight him always with a heart that gives thanks in all things.

As the Gibeonites served at the tabernacle, they would have come to see how right their decision had been, and they must have been deeply thankful for the joy of becoming God’s children, because even if the work given them was drawing water and splitting firewood, to live as God’s people was a blessing.

Whatever your occupation in the world, whatever trouble you have met, I hope you will give thanks that you are living now in God as his child. Then God will protect you unconditionally, and even knowing he is being deceived, he will answer your prayers. Since we know what a great blessing it is to be pitied because we are God’s children, let us show him a faith that gives itself to him. May you run toward God like the Gibeonites, pray like Joshua, and love one another as the Israelites did, made one in faith.

I pray that you will always receive God’s love in overflowing measure. I bless you in the name of Jesus Christ.